YanukovychLeaks.org, a new website created by Ukrainian journalists to publish documents that were found in Victor Yanukovych's residence. Many of them document evidence of massive corruption of the regime.

After former Ukrainian President Victor Yanukovych fled Kiev[2] in the wake of escalating protests, regime violence and major reshuffles in Parliament, one of the things he left behind was his massive, opulent residence on the outskirts of the capital, Mezhyhirya. The palatial estate soon opened its doors to protesters, journalists and ordinary citizens, who wanted to see for themselves how their President had lived.

But among the many grandiose buildings and signs of an excessive lifestyle (a zoo! a galleon ship! a golf course![3]), journalists and activists found a more important treasure – reams of paperwork on the estate, blacklists of journalists and activists, and financial records. Some of them were half-burned, others dumped in the water of the Dnieper river and the Kyiv Sea on the edge of the land.

Journalist Oleksandr Aronets[4], now famous for his endless live streams from Euromaidan, was one of the first to spot the papers in the water:

As the documents were rescued and set to dry, a group of journalists came together swiftly to start photographing and cataloging the newly discovered information, to preserve it for future investigations. Katya Gorchinskaya[7] posted this photo of some of the work:

Later, Sergii Leshchenko[17], a journalist from Ukrainska Pravda[18], known for his investigations of Yanukovych's property, including Mezhyhirya, posted a photo of more documents drying in the sauna on the premises:

What is happening now in Mezhyhirya is a project unique even by world standards. Several dozen journalists are copying thousands of pages of evidence of the corrupt nature of Yanukovych found here. This is a photo of a working sauna in Yanukovych's guest house, where the documents fished out of the Kyiv Sea are drying out.

A group of journalists from English-language Ukrainian newspaper Kyiv Post[20], Ukrainska Pravda[18] and several other media realized that the treasure trove they were looking at needed to be preserved at all costs – so they decided to cooperate in the documentation, preservation and cataloging of everything – and to report later.

The reporters soon learned that if the waterlogged piles were not separated and dried, they would turn into a pasty clump that could never be rescued. The team took over a boat shed the first night and then the next day moved to an opulent guest house on the grounds to lay out more documents. It became their headquarters. A sign outside reads “Journalism Investigation in Process – Do Not Disturb.”
– from GIJN piece “YanukovychLeaks: How Ukraine Journalists Are Making History”